


Deja Vu

by Lilly_Riches



Series: Deja Vu [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Another texting story, Fluff and Angst, Gay, M/M, Mixed feelings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sequel, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-09-27 10:59:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17160767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilly_Riches/pseuds/Lilly_Riches
Summary: Welcome to the second installment of this series! I know, i wasn't going to post until next year, but I couldn't help myself. I got a smartphone for Christmas, and I figured, why not put it to good use? Also, Merry Christmas everyone!





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the second installment of this series! I know, i wasn't going to post until next year, but I couldn't help myself. I got a smartphone for Christmas, and I figured, why not put it to good use? Also, Merry Christmas everyone!

**12/10**

I was walking to my dad’s classroom, having to wait there so he could drive me home. I didn’t have any after school practice or anything today, so I was free to go home as soon as my dad was ready. I didn’t have my driver’s license, but I did have my temps, so my dad was going to make me drive us home. Practice makes perfect. Yeah right. 

There was a boy in my dad’s room, probably talking to him about grades or missing assignments. I just walked right in and made myself at home in a random desk. I took out my phone and browsed Tumblr before working on some digital artwork. Doing art on a phone was a lot harder than drawing on paper, but I didn’t have paper to doodle on, so I had to deal. I loved working on art, just like my papa. We made an artbook together, something we still worked on. Sometimes my sister contributed their work, but it was mainly mine and papa’s. 

I looked up from my drawing to see the boy sitting in the desk next to mine. He had dark brown hair that seemed messy and out-of-sorts. His eyes were just as dark as his hair, looking black in just the right light. It was kind of chilling to think about. 

“Virgil, I have detention duty tonight, so you’ll have to text Opal and get her to pick you up today.” The boy looked up at me, and I realized it was Roman Kingsley. He was a known troublemaker at the school, though I never tried to get to know him. I nodded, shooting Opal a quick text. She’d come home for the holidays, though it was a bit early for that. It was only the tenth of December, and break didn’t come until the weekend of the 22nd. Maddy was still at college, coming home on Christmas Eve. Opal shot me the okay, and I gathered my stuff to leave when my phone buzzed again. 

?: Heya Mattie

Virgil: Who’s Mattie?

?: Oops wrong person

?: Who ru

Virgil: No one

Virgil: Why would i tell you

Virgil: You could be a murderer

?: I’m not

?: Just someone trying to find their way

Virgil: Aren’t we all

?: True

?: I like you mystery person

Virgil: I still think ur a murderer

?: To each their own

?: g2g

Strange. I didn’t know anyone named Mattie, so I couldn’t even begin to guess who this mystery person was. It didn’t matter, since I didn’t ever plan on talking to them again. Stranger danger. It’s why I didn’t post personal pictures of myself on any of my social media accounts. If I was going to die, I didn’t want it to be because I was an idiot. 

“What’re you thinking about, little bro?” I looked up at my older sister. Opal still had those rose tinted glasses of hers that she seemed to love so much. 

“How much I need a nap.” Opal laughed, tousling my hair before driving us home.


	2. Chapter Two

**10/11**

English class was my favorite class, mainly because my teacher was the greatest. Ms. L was the best teacher in the entire school-even better than my dad-and everyone loved her, even those who never had her as a teacher. Our subject right now was argumentative essays, and how to convince people that our side was the right side. Which led to our big project for the topic.

“You and a partner are going to come up with something to debate. You’ll do a weeks worth of research on your topic. When it comes time to present, you two will be debating about the entire class, trying to convince the class that what you’re saying it true. Majority wins. Any questions?” No one raised their hand, eyeing their friends across the room. I didn’t have any friends in this class, so I would be stuck with the leftovers. “Good. Now, as for partners, I have the list already made.” Cue groans from everyone in the classroom. I just tuned out the teacher, not caring who my partner was. I’d see who in a moment. Instead, I turned to drawing something on my notebook, just a quick doodle. I wasn’t drawing anything in particular, letting my hand do what it wanted. 

“That’s really good.” I jumped, looking up into dark brown eyes that I thought were black for a moment. Only one person had those eyes. 

“Thanks.” I slammed my notebook shut, hiding it under my desk. For my eyes only. “So, what should we do?” I had no idea what to convince the class of, or how we would go about convincing them. I didn’t like standing in front of people and talking to them. I didn’t like talking to people at all. 

“It has to be something that no one will believe, so that it’s more amazing when we’ve convinced them all.” Roman answered. “Everyone will pick a topic they know everyone agrees with, just for an easy A. Let’s actually do the assignment right.” I nodded, thinking it over. Something that no one would believe. There was a topic I had been thinking over for a while, something my dad had brought up.

“Why don’t we convince everyone that Dory doesn’t actually have short-term memory loss?” Roman’s eyes widened, looking at me like I had murdered someone. 

“Besmirch the name of Disney?” He screeched, pretending to faint. “How dare you! There’s no way we’re going to find proof for that.” I shrugged. 

“You don’t know that. Do you even know what defines as short-term memory loss?” He shook his head. “Ok. It might be a bit difficult, but I think we might be able to pull it off. And, it fits all the criteria you mentioned earlier. C’mon, this might actually be fun.” Roman rolled his eyes. 

“Fine. But this is going to blow up in our faces.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there's chapter two! It's a bit short, but the next one should be longer. Also, the idea that Dory doesn't actually have short-term memory loss comes from a theory I saw.  
> There's a YouTube channel called The Film Theorists, where they make theories about films. They did a two part theory about how Dory doesn't have short-term memory loss. All the evidence I get from my story comes from those two videos.   
> Also, I just started a new story called Don't Look. It's a Sanders Sides fic inspired by the movie Bird Box. You should read it.   
> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!!!


	3. Chapter Three

**10/12**

The teacher had mentioned that we would have to work on the project outside of school, so that’s what Roman and I did. We were currently at my house, chilling in my room. 

“Okay, so how do we even begin this? I mean, I don’t even believe in what we’re trying to sell here.” Roman had been whining ever since he got here, which was starting to get on my nerves.

“I did some research beforehand, okay? Just hear me out.” Roman fell silent, waiting for me to start. “So, in order for this to work, we need to know everything we can about short-term memory loss, right?” Roman nodded. “Well, turns out there are two different types. Retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia. The type that Dory supposedly has is anterograde amnesia.” 

“What’s that?” I could tell Roman was intrigued, actually paying attention to what I was saying. Huh. And here I always thought he was a troublemaker, someone who didn’t actually do any work. Maybe I was wrong. 

“With anterograde amnesia, a person can remember old memories, but can’t form new ones following a traumatic event.” 

“Traumatic event?”

“Like head trauma, something like that.” I sighed, trying to remember where I was.

Right. “They could tell you the name of their best friend in high school, but they couldn’t tell you what they had for a snack fifteen minutes ago. They don’t have declarative memory, which is a collection of facts and such. Yet they can maintain procedural memory, things you know because you repeatedly do it.” I explained, realizing I was moving my hands a lot. It was a habit I picked up from both my parents. “I’ve written everything down on a document, which has some helpful things in it.” Roman had already pulled it up, looking through it. 

“Who’s Henry Molaison?” Was his first question.

“He suffered from anterograde amnesia, so I figured we could compare what people noticed about him to Dory. It definitely helps proving our point.” 

“Fair.” Roman looked through it some more, eyes squinting every now and again as he took in information. “Alright, well, I’m going to go home, watch BOTH movies, and see if I can expose Dory for the liar you think she is.” 

“And I’ll look for more facts to back up our findings.” Roman smiled at me before walking out of the room, grabbing his bag as he went. Once he was out of the house, I pulled up my phone. The mystery person had texted again, right before Roman had showed up. I didn’t like talking to strangers, but this guy intrigued me. 

?: Watcha up to

Virgil: Nothing

?: I never got ur name

Virgil: I never gave it to you

Virgil: Call me Anx

?: Whatever floats ur boat

?: You can call me Dory

Virgil: Why Dory?

?: I watched Finding Dory recently

Virgil: Interesting

?: No my life is actually really boring

Virgil: g2g

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now you guys know more about retrograde amnesia!  
> So, I'm sick again. I hate being sick, and it was my sister who got me sick. Thanks a lot, sis.  
> ALSO, the new (and final) season of A Series of Unfortunate Events is coming out on the first, and I'm super hyped. I love the book series, the movie, and the Netflix series. And I love Neil Patrick Harris. He's great.  
> Also, it was my dog's birthday yesterday, he is now three years old.  
> I'm not going to update again until after the New Year, mainly because tomorrow's a family day and Monday's a family day, so I won't have any time.  
> Wishing you an early happy New Year's! Goodbye twenty gay-teen, hello twenty bi-teen!


	4. Chapter Four

**10/14**

Roman plopped himself into the desk next to mine, a frustrated look on his face. 

“I couldn’t find any evidence as to how Dory could possibly be faking short-term memory loss. You know, maybe the movie is just about talking, animated fish, and we’re looking too much into this.” Roman crossed his arms, jutting his bottom lip out a bit into a pout. I frowned. 

“Okay, let’s look at what you have.” It was Friday, and we had to have this done by Wednesday, the first day of the presentations. We had to get all our information organized and in a presentable manner, and it wasn’t looking promising. 

“Alright, so first, Marlin runs into Dory, and asks about the boat. As Dory’s leading him to the boat, she forgets having ever met him. That adds up, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Along with forgetting Marlin, she gets Nemo’s name wrong consistently. She calls him Chico, Elmo, Bingo, Fabio, and Harpo. Names fall under declarative memory, which means that she should have trouble with names.” I nodded, showing that he wasn’t wrong. “Also, when they’re being chased by sharks, she forgets their being chased by sharks! Like, who does that?” 

“Calm down, Princey, it’s just a movie.” Roman glared at me.

“Whatever, Jack Smellington. Two can play at the name game.” I rolled my eyes, gesturing for him to continue with the evidence. “Now, Dory remembers her personal motto, ‘Just keep swimming’. I thought that might be enough to accuse her, but it falls under procedural memory. It’s a motto, it gets repeated over and over, meaning that she would remember it. That explains how she can read, too. She has no memory of reading, but instinctually, she knows how. Apparently, it’s called a mnemonic device, and is used to help people better short-term memory loss.” 

“Are you sure you didn’t miss anything?” There had to be some proof out there, right? It was too late to change our project, there just wasn’t enough time. Besides, I’d gotten hooked on this theory. There had to be something to prove that we were right. 

“I stayed up super late, watching and rewatching both movies. Trust me, I would’ve noticed something. I can even pull up the movie if you need me too.” I nodded, so Roman pulled up the movie. We started watching it, and he was right. There was nothing. Until . . .

“I GOT IT!” Roman jumped, eyes widening in fear and shock. The entire class looked up in my direction. I blushed and ducked my head out of sight. 

“Care to share, Charlie Frown?” I punched Roman’s arm, glaring at him as I did so. 

“Dory said she remembers seeing the boat. How could she remember seeing the boat, then forget meeting Marlin? It doesn’t add up!” I was ecstatic. We finally found our evidence! Roman didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm. 

“Well, yes, I have to concede your point, but that doesn’t make a difference. One piece of evidence, stacked against everything we found supporting Dory, isn’t going to change anyone’s mind.” As I went to say something, the bell rang, and we had to leave. “Look, I’ll come over tomorrow, and we can discuss this some more. But, I still don’t think we’re going to find anything else to support our theory.” 

I watched as he left, my smile slowly falling. We’d find something, wouldn’t we? Well, it didn’t matter anyway, there was at least a shred a proof to point in the right direction. That was all that mattered. 

As I settled down into my seat, I pulled out my sketchbook and started drawing. Just little doodles, but it calmed me. I had study hall-two, actually, which was quite uncommon. There was a really good reason for it, however. As I looked, I noticed I was drawing a certain picture. 

In our house, there were plenty of pictures of the family around the house. My favorite was the park one. Meri and Kenz had been five, it had been the summer before school. It had been just after my seventh. Mom had come to visit, and we had a chill day at the local park. Hayden and our cousins had been there too; Hayden had taken the picture. Mom, Dad, and Popa had been the back, arms wrapped around each other, brilliant smiles on their faces. Maddy, Opal, Meri, Kenzia, and I had been the front, goofing off and making silly faces at the camera. I had sketched it a various amount of times, always smiling at the memory.

If only things could go back to the way they were. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some light Virgil angst, just cause the story was getting boring.   
> How many of you think Roman and Virgil can convince the class that Dory has short-term memory loss?   
> How many of you are enjoying 2019?  
> I am, I'm going to spend time with family friends this weekend, which means I have to get as much writing done as possible. I'm going to be exhausted after this weekend, that's for sure.   
> Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!


	5. Chapter Five

**10/14**

Dory: Hey u up for talking

Virgil: Not particularly

Dory: Something wrong

Virgil: No

Virgil: I just don’t want to be social today

Dory: Fair enough

Dory: u don’t sound as snarky as normal

Dory: u sure nothings wrong

Virgil: yes

Virgil: I just wanna take a nap

Dory: Alrighty then

Dory: I’ll sing you a song

Dory: Twinkle twinkle little star

Virgil: BYE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short, little filler chapter until I get my freaking motivation back. I'm so done with writer's block, like, why does it have to exist?   
> That's all I have for you today, but if you want, you can go read my other stories that I haven't yet mentioned: Locksley and Verrinto, and School. Lame titles, but making titles isn't my strong suit.   
> I hope you all are having a lovely day/night!


	6. Chapter Six

**10/15**

When I first saw Virgil’s house, it wasn’t what I was expecting. To be honest, I didn’t know what I expected. It wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small either. It was a nice, calming, blue color that eased all my nerves. Now that I was visiting a second time, I knew what to expect. Someone other than Virgil opening the door, lots of pictures, and room that fit Virgil’s emo aesthetic. When I entered Virgil’s bedroom, said male was lying on his bed, eyes shut, half naked. I wanted to look away, but Virgil looked really good without a shirt on. Like, better than I expected. 

“You know, if you want us to get anything done today, you might want to put on a shirt.” Virgil opened his eyes, glancing up at me. 

“Too much work.” I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t going to admit that the sight was distracting me, so I sat on the edge of the bed and poked the angsty teen. 

“Find anything.” A nod. He finally sat up with a sigh, acting like it was the hardest thing in the world. I rolled my eyes again, chuckling lightly at the dramatics. 

“Do you know what a malingerer is?” I shook my head. I’d never heard the term before. “Okay, so I was talking this through with my dad, and he said that if Dory truly didn’t have anterograde amnesia, she’d be malingering. Faking an illness of some sort for some gain.” 

“Okay, so there’s a word that describes what she is. That’s cool, or whatever. How does this help us?” What, did we just slap a condition on her and hope that was enough evidence? There was no way anyone in our class would fall for that.

“Silly little Princey. There are tests to take to see if you actually have anterograde amnesia are not, which means there are ways to catch malingerers in the act. Use the interwebs to secure this knowledge, and we can apply everything we learn to Dory. If Dory is truly a malingerer, she should fail all the tests.” Oh.  _ Oh.  _ That made a lot more sense than what I had originally been thinking. “But before we actually look into this, we should get some lunch. I literally just woke up half an hour ago and haven’t eaten.” 

“Well there’s your problem. Wake up at a decent time so you can actually eat.” Virgil just rolled his eyes, finally climbing out of bed.

“When hell freezes over, my dear friend.” With that, he shoved me out of the room, saying I could go downstairs and make myself at home. The only two people I knew from Virgil’s family were Opal and his dad. His dad. Who saw me in detention almost everyday. 

As I walked into the living room to wait for Virgil, I noticed his dad on the couch. Laying on his back, glasses askew, in casual clothes, perfectly relaxed. Nothing like the teacher I saw on a daily basis. I knew teachers had lives outside of their classes, but seeing Mr. Brenslie so at peace . . . it was strange. 

“See something you like?” I screeched, jumping. I turned to see a younger kid doubled over, laughing. She had strawberry blonde hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. “I’m only joking. You’re Virgil’s partner for that project, right? Well, I’m McKenzia, his younger sister.” Exactly how many siblings did Virgil have? I never imagined him to be someone who would like having a big family. No offense to him, but with that whole aesthetic thing . . . 

“Kenz, you don’t need to harass everyone who comes into this house. You know that, right?” Virgil came down, with a shirt on. McKenzia just stuck her tongue out, pushing him slightly. 

“Maybe if our family wasn’t so dysfunctional, I wouldn’t have a need to harass people. Ever think of that?” With that, she did the classic hair flip, storming away. Virgil only laughed. 

“Sorry about that. My sisters can be quite eccentric.” Virgil made his way towards the kitchen, me following like a little puppy. “And before you ask, I have four. Two younger, two older.” He took a pizza out of the freezer, showing it to me. I nodded in agreement, hopping up onto the counter. We made small talk, I found out about his favorite music, he found out about my cat. I named her Eilonwy, after the princess in  Black Cauldron. He seemed to appreciate the name, admitting it was his favorite Disney movie. In fact, the entire time I was at his house, we didn’t actually work on any of the project. Most people would say it was a waste of a day. I say it’s better than me being alone at my house. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That definitely could've been better, but I needed to stop procrastinating and just write already.   
> ALSO, I have a song recommendation for anyone who's interested. Dream Alone, by Natewantstobattle. He is hands down my favorite singer and youtuber. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzEw2FXyChc  
> Thank you for reading! I hope for the next chapter to be up soon!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed.  
> You can find me on tumblr: @ghostiequeen


End file.
